(What did you expect? That he would walk away with nothing? Being
CEO is a risky job! Make a catastrophic decision that destroys
your company and you could...lose your job. Everyone should get
an $11 million severance for shouldering that kind of
responsibility!)

What is a surprise, according to
Michelle Leder at footnoted.org, is that E*Trade's
explanation of Caplan's going-away bonus doesn't compute. E*Trade
breezes over the number by saying it's just two times Caplan's
salary and bonus for 2006. Except that it isn't. After checking
the proxy, Michelle says that 2X Caplan's salary+bonus was all of
$1.5 million:

Turns out that two times Caplan’s 2006 salary and bonus is only
$1.5 million (his salary was $750K and the bonus was listed as
zero). Even adding on the options and stock awards that Caplan
received ($1.7 million and $2.6 million respectively) and
doubling that figure gets you closer: $10.17 million and throwing
in another $300K for the doubling of “all other comp” gets you
closer still. But that’s not the same as “two times salary and
bonus during 2006."

Michelle draws the appropriate conclusion: "when a company
stretches the truth about something that’s easily checkable (it
took me less than 5 minutes to find those numbers in the proxy),
it kind of makes you wonder what other numbers they’re monkeying
around with."

E*Trade apparently still doesn't get it. To have any chance of
recovering from this near-death experience, it needs to start
being absolutely transparent and straightforward in every
statement it makes. It also needs to start making more
statements. (Starting with finally reporting how much it's lost
from its mortgage gambling activities.)